


No Lesser of Evils

by Suukarin



Series: No More Happy Endings [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Evil Chara, Gen, Genocide Frisk, Not the first route, Sans Remembers Resets, Suicide Attempt, There is no good choice, Undertale Genocide Route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-22 19:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7451617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suukarin/pseuds/Suukarin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My, my... seems like you have a tough choice to make, don't you? Hee hee.</p>
<p>I wonder... if you really think you could live in a world without your brother?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_no more games._

Sans' eye flashes as he clenches his hand into a tight fist, ignoring the human's grunt of pain as they're lifted by their soul.

_no more mercy._

He doesn't look away this time as he slams the human's body into the wall, muffled cries of pain falling on his deaf ears.

_not this time. not anymore._

A simple flick of his wrist, and into a pillar the human goes, the knife flying out of their hand.

_this time, i don't want answers._

He doesn't even feel his usual single twinge of regret as he sends the human through the window, ignoring the shattering of glass.

_there's only... one thing i want from you._

Sans finally drags the human back inside, holding them in place in the dead center of the room, and watches as they flail their legs at the nothingness that holds them in the air.

_there's only one thing you can give me now._

"What's the matter, human?" he finally speaks, sickly-sweet venom dripping from every letter. "You finally afraid for once? Finally feeling what everyone else did when you found them?"

The human stills their body, and Sans is unsurprised to be met with a blank, soulless expression.

_papyrus... i'm sorry..._

Sans lifts his other hand in time with the ring of blasters that emerge to surround the human, all mouths already fully opened.

_but... i'm coming._

He throws his hands down, slamming the human into the ground the same moment all the blasters activate, creating a blinding light...

_this time... i'll fix it. i'll fix it, papyrus..._

Sans holds his pose, breathing heavily even as the blasters slowly fade away into nothing.

_i'll fix it... i'll save everyone..._   
_no._

He finally looks up to see the human lying face-down on the ground, silent. Unmoving.

Dead.

_i'll save you._

"...hah... aha... ha..."

A hollow laugh escapes his lips as Sans stumbles forward, the glow slowly fading from his eye as his pupils return.

"I... I did it, ha... ahaha," the skeleton mumbles to himself, that same empty chuckle echoing after his words. "Bet you... didn't expect that, huh, human? Heh... eheh..."

Despite his exhaustion, Sans forces himself to keep moving, his uneven, shuffled steps punctuated by his own heavy breathing.

"Papyrus... I'm sorry it took so long," he announces, his words echoing off the barren, gold-colored walls. "I'm sorry I couldn't... I couldn't save you this time. Last time. Any of those other timelines... but... this is..."

Sans finally reaches the human's corpse, and, taking a moment to catch his breath, he wiggles a slippered foot under the body and flips it over.

"...the last time I'll lose you."

Sans lets himself close his eyes as he reaches out with his magic, searching for the human's soul...

"...what? N-no, that can't be..."

He opens his eyes, and, shaking momentarily, Sans clenches his fist to lift the human's body...

...and finding no soul to grab hold of.

"...n... no, no, no _no no--_ "

Panic fills his voice as Sans collapses to his knees, eye flickering between yellow and blue as he phsyically searches the human's body, as though hoping to find it within the locket around their neck.

_where is it it has to be here where where **where**_

"Oh, my. Are you looking for something?"

Shocked out of his magic trance, Sans whips his head around--

"Perhaps... you're looking for this, yes?"

Sans doesn't see the empty smile on the other human's face, doesn't notice the wispy glow of grey surrounding its translucent body...

All he can see is the glowing red heart cupped delicately in their hands.


	2. Chapter 2

"My goodness, still nothing to say? Did I really scare you that badly, Mr. Skeleton?"

The child's light laugh falls on deaf auricles as Sans stares, eyes fixed on the soul still hovering in their small hands, still glowing, right there, _right there--_

"Hmph! Don't you know that it's not polite to stare?" the child chides in the same soft tone. "Especially at someone's soul, no less... I almost feel vulnerable! Well, I would, if I could feel anything at all... hee hee. You can appreciate a dead person's humor, can't you?"

They watch complacently as the skeleton finally staggers to his feet, eyesockets hollow.

"Give that back," Sans growls, his bones rattling and filling the grand hall with an ominous clatter. "That soul... give it to me. _Now."_

"Hmph...how rude, indeed," the child sighs, unfazed by Sans' threat display. "First you kill my friend here, then you go around claiming that their -- no, sorry, _my_ soul is yours. I mean, I don't even see your name on it or anything~"

" _I'm not kidding around,_ " Sans hisses through gritted teeth, eye flashing brightly as a row of blasters materialize, all aimed at the small child, all ready to fire. "Either you give it to me now, or I _take_ it from you by force."

" _Goodness!_ I never expected a monster to be quite so _soulless_ \--"

He doesn't even flinch as the blasters fire, vaporizing the child where they stand.

_papyrus... if you knew what i did to save you... i doubt even you could forgive me,_ Sans muses darkly as the blasters slowly vanish, the blinding light of the lasers dying with them. _i guess this is just one more secret i'll have to... keep from..._

_you..._

"Well... it was a good try, at least."

Sans' eyesockets widen as the child's body rematerializes, like static clearing from a TV image.

"Not to mention quite... _quite_ unnecessary," the child continues, as though nothing had happened to them. "Well. I _was_ considering showing you at least a _little_ mercy, but now... hm. I suppose... I can let you choose your punishment, instead. That's fair, isn't it?"

Sans can't stop the disbelieving laugh from escaping his throat.

"I'm sorry... let me 'choose my punishment'?" he repeats, unable to keep the laugh out of his words. "Let me _choose my punishment?_ I dunno who you think you are, kid, but this timeline I'm in... my life -- it's already hell on earth. What could _you_ do to _possibly_ make it worse?"

The marrow in his bone freezes when the child finally flashes a toothy, soulless grin.

"I am... _so glad_ you asked," they giggle, voice nearly as empty as their grin. "After all, _I_ have the soul, do I not? Which means that _I_ am the one that controls the timeline, now. Who says I have to reset it? Hee hee..."

As quick as it appeared, the hollow look on the child's face vanishes, replaced by a cheery smile.

"Fortunately for you, Mr. Skeleton, I'm actually willing to do that for you!" they announce proudly. "I can bring everyone back for you, if you want... even your stupid little brother, if he's really that im--"

" _Don't call him that_."

"Protective, aren't we? Well, I can do that for you... at a cost, of course."

Still rattled at the child's insult towards Papyrus, Sans narrows his eyes.

"What do you want?" he demands, eye flashing briefly.

"Oh, it's not so much what I _want_ , as what I think would be.... _interesting_ ," the child responds, rocking back and forth on their heels. "You see -- and I know you're quite aware of this -- every other timeline we've been through, it's always been _him_ , hasn't it? Why don't we change things up a bit...? I think you should take your brother's place. A life for a life -- that's only fair, right?"

"....huh. So... no matter what I choose... it's just gonna be one of us on our own... is that it?"

The child can't mask their genuine surprise at Sans' sudden laugh.

"Haha... what the hell kind of choice is that?" Sans asks, shaking his head as he continues chuckling. "What kind of sick weirdo tries to separate brothers like that, huh? You must be _really_ bored to ask something like that. Ahah..."

Sans expected silence from the child, and is unsurprised to feel their empty eyes fixated on him.

"Well, sorry to ruin your fun, kid," he says, sliding his hands into his pockets as a ring of bones quietly materializes around him. "But, uh, that's a not a decision I'm willing to make. So, I guess, uh..."

His eye flashes, and the child tenses--

...then stares blankly as Sans staggers back, impaled at all angles from his own magical attack.

"...guess I'm taking... the coward's way out, then... heh..."

With a hollow laugh, he sinks to his knees, already feeling his body disintegrating into fine dust.

"Goodness," he hears the child say as the world grows dark around him. "You would rather die than make that choice? You're certainly braver than you look..."

_papyrus... i'll... see you soon..._

With a final, weak chuckle, Sans lets his eyes slide closed as everything grows so comfortably _soft_...

And suddenly finds himself back on his feet, staring the smiling child down.

"Wh -- what...?!"

"Sorry," the child greets cheerfully, "but I didn't give you permission to die."

Sans looks down, patting down his chest to confirm that yes, the bones are gone, not even a scratch, like... like--

"Like it never even happened?"

He freezes, then slowly looks back up, trying and failing to mask the sinking feeling in his soul.

_"What did you do?"_

The child's grin widens.

"Well, I didn't want to have to do everything over again to get to this point," they explain cheerfully, gently petting the soul in their hands. "After all, this is the first time this has ever happened! So, just in case you did something I didn't like... I made a new save point!"

_no_

"So now, even if you try and kill yourself to get out of choosing..."

_no, no_

"...or if you choose this timeline, and it winds up being a happy ending for you..."

_no no, NO_

"....I can load it from here! And make you have to live through making this decision alone all over again~"

_THIS ISN'T HAPPENING_

"Over, and over, and over, until I get bored..."

The child beams proudly, reveling in Sans' absolute silence.

"Smart, huh?" they ask, glowing nearly as bright as the soul in their hands--

_**NO** _

He doesn't even realize he's screaming as a ring of blasters surrounds the child, firing immediately--

_**THIS ISN'T HAPPENING** _

As fast as they activate, the blasters vanish, leaving the proud-looking child standing in the center of it all.

"You know that's not going to work, right?" they ask, unable to keep the gloating out of their voice. "After all, you know I can--"

" _SHUT UP!_ " Sans screams, eye blazing as a swarm of bones erupts from the ground, flying towards the child. " _SHUT UP, SHUT UP, **SHUT UP!!!"**_

_I CAN'T MAKE THIS CHOICE_

Before they can hit their target, the bones blip out of existence, never having even been real.

"All you're doing is tiring yourself out--whoop~"

"I SAID SHUT UP!!"

_I **WON'T** MAKE THIS CHOICE_

The child smiles, staring at Sans as he, despite his violent rattling, grabs hold of the soul to throw them headfirst into a wall of bones--

_THERE **HAS** TO BE A WAY OUT_

"Stalling isn't going to do you any good, Mr. Skeleton--"

He doesn't even look at the child, knowing exactly where they'll be standing as he hurls yet another magic blast--

_THERE HAS TO BE **SOMETHING**_

"I'm still going to be here when you finally give up..."

Sans grimaces, eyes tightly shut as he keeps attacking, ignoring the exhaustion growing in his soul--

_SOMETHING... **ANYTHING...!**_

"Oh my, getting tired already? Come on, you can't be giving up so easily~!"

_THERE... there has to be... something i can do...!_

He can't ignore the shaking of his legs, and he staggers forward as his next attack unleashes itself.

_s... something... anything..._

"Come on, are you even _trying_ now?" the child asks, not even bothering to reset the time loop this time as they easily step out of the way of the blaster's beam. "Look, I'm practically standing still for you, it can't be _that_ hard to hit me!"

_...anything... anything but this_

Sans suddenly finds himself on his knees, one bony hand on the ground, the other shaking violently as he tries to hold his next attack in place...

"Hmm? Are you finally giving up?"

"N... nnghh...!"

The last of his energy spent, Sans fully collapses, the few bones he managed to summon clattering harmlessly on the ground around the child.

_not this, not... not this...._

"My, my... worn out from your little tantrum, hmm?" the child asks, picking up one of the fallen bones and briefly waving it around like a wand. "I did warn you that this would happen, did I not?"

_not this... i_

Sans, breathing heavily, struggles to push himself at least up onto his knees, to at least pretend he didn't spend all his energy for... for...

_there's... nothing i... can do..._

He barely succeeds, still staring at the ground as he hears the soft sound of small footsteps growing closer.

_i can't even... save us both..._

"So," the child says, planting both feet firmly in front of the skeleton. "What will it be?"

_brother... papyrus... i..._

"Whose life do you value more?"

He feels something akin to a sob welling in his bony throat, and quickly chokes it down.

_...i'm sorry, papyrus_

"...will you... at least promise this?"

"Hmm?"

Sans' bony fingers claw at the ground, grating against the tile.

_i'm sorry i'm so weak_

"If I... choose to reset the timeline," he begins, voice hoarse. "Will you... leave my brother alone...?"

_but i can't go on without you_

"I can do that," the human smiles, tucking their hair behind their ear. "I'll even give you enough time to say goodbye."

Sans wishes he could rip his soul in half and let the pain flood out, let it drown what's left of this timeline and drown him along with it--

"... I... can't go on without him," he admits, his weakness eating at his words.

"So, you would let yourself die for your brother's sake...?" the child asks, a curious sort of grin curling at their lips. "My, my... you're a better brother than mine _ever_ was."

Sans looks away, wishing he had lungs only so he could force them to stop breathing.

"Well, I just need to take care of one tiny thing in this timeline," the human continues, ignoring the skeleton's reaction. "I just need to teach someone a little lesson about betrayal, and then... we'll be heading back, hmm? Best start preparing your farewells, Mr. Skeleton~"

Without another word, the child walks off, soul still nestled in their grip.

It isn't until they pass through the archway to the castle that they hear the hard slam of bone against tile, followed by an anguished, blood-curdling howl...

Chara lets a sly grin creep to their lips.


End file.
